Activists marking Tax Day by demanding Trump release taxes

Protesters are gather on Capitol Hill in Washington, Saturday, April 15, 2017, during a Tax Day demonstration calling on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns. Tax experts say there is no law barring Trump from from releasing his returns during an audit. "And the reason the people care is because without seeing Trump's taxes, we'll never know what foreign business entanglements he has, and we can't be sure in whose interests he is really working".

The rallies are planned in cities across the US, with the main march taking place in Washington, D.C. Similar events are scheduled for New York City and Los Angeles, as well as in the heartland in cities including Billings, Mont., and Fayetteville, Ark.

Without complete tax returns going back several decades, we have no way of knowing how much Trump depends on Russian oligarchs and Middle East potentates for his huge income - or how vulnerable he is to being squeezed to repay loans to banks owned by the Communist Chinese government in Beijing. Those who attend will march to Market Square, where Pittsburgh City Council member Corey O'Connor is scheduled to speak. In a conference call with reporters, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of NY sought to tie Trump's refusal to release his tax returns to prospects for a rewrite of the tax code.

In all, more than 100 marches were expected. "This weekend's marches will prove that's not true - the people care", said Joe Dinkin, national communications director for the Working Families Party, one of the progressive political organizations now helping coordinate the march.

"Paying your taxes is an American thing to do", said Claudia Stroie, 49, a mechanical engineer from CT who attended the rally in NY.

Similar protests are being held in dozens more cities including Washington, D.C., Chicago and Mar-A-Lago, Florida.

Trump has said in the past that he can't release his returns because he is being audited by the IRS.

One of Trump's sharpest critics in the House says that Democrats and Tax Day protesters "will not be quiet" about his taxes. The release of tax returns is an essential tradition in American democracy-it demonstrates that presidential nominees do not have conflicts of interests that would prevent them from fulfilling their duties as President.

Joe Dinkin, spokesman for the Working Families Party, one of the groups organizing the marches, said investigations into the Trump campaign's alleged connections to Russian Federation underscore the need to disclose his returns. The event was staged to protest the policies of President Donald Trump and to demand that he release his tax information.